"Florence Pfifer V" Painting

This is the fifth painting in a series of drawings and paintings I did of my wife's grandmother Florence Pfifer. This series is really about the nature of memory and who we chose to glorify in our family histories. In my family it has always been about the men who did crazy things and spun legends about themselves. I chose to pick this image of my wife's grandmother because she was someone who never thought she would be honored in this way. I was initially drawn to the original photograph portrait of her. Her beauty and her expression and the composition were enough of a starting point...But then I learned that she died an unnecessary, lonely and anonymous death, so the project began to take on a deeper meaning for me as well as for my wife's family.